The Value of Uninterrupted Time

How often are you interrupted? Whether you work in an office, in the home or in a factory; try a little experiment and see just how many minutes it takes before you hear a bell, beep, buzz or "Do you have just a minute?" For the average person, that time is about 5-15 minutes. That is a lot of interruptions in a day's time. How are you expected to focus and stay on task? How are you expected to have deep thoughts and meditate on the important? The fact is if you are so use to being interrupted, you may have a hard time focusing on a given task for very long because you mind becomes "wired" towards jumping from thing to thing.

Find some time where you can just think. Shut off the interruptions. Get away from the noise and concentrate. You might ask, "What do I need to think about?" Consider the following ideas:

• What are the most important things that I need to accomplish today that would have the greatest impact in my work, relationships and self rings? When am I going to get them done? How will I get them done?


• Brainstorm a specific project and break it down into it's individual parts


• What one key thing did I learn about today? Write it down in a journal or blog about it


• What are my goals? What one or two things would I like to accomplish today, this week, this month, this year, in my lifetime? Write them down and then determine how and by when you will accomplish them


• Ponder spiritual matters


• Consider a relationship that is important to you. What does that relationship mean to you? What are the one or two things that you could do to build that relationship?

There are many more things that you could think about. This list is just intended to get your mind going. And that is exactly the point – Get your mind going. Get out of the shallow, reactive, "how am I going to quickly reply" mode and into the mode of focused, intentional, deep thinking – at least occasionally. The quality of your work and life will increase as a result.